The Junior Goodwill Games *Gunnar Stahl*

Chapter Three

Coach whistled and said, "I don't know how to make this any clearer, you are a team and to win this thing, you have to work as one. Now as one, skate," he instructed, he tied us all together in one of his last stitch efforts to get us all to get along. The whole group fell, "Everyone goes their own way, everyone falls down. Now get up and try it again."

"All right, all of you move to your right. Now," Portman demanded.

Half of us moved until Fulton protested against it,  "Who made you boss? Everyone to the left."

"You guys can argue all you want...but I am not untying you until you move as one," Coach raised his eyebrows and smirked. After almost a half hour of struggling, we finally got the hang of it, "Now you're learning! Communication!"

He untied us and had us all take a knee in front of him on the ice, I could tell just by the overall tone of conversation that Bombay's exercise worked. Fulton and Portman were actually talking and not trying to fight each other.

"You guys are starting to look like hockey players, I'm proud of you team. You worked hard today. But hockey should also be fun," Coach said, "Rancher Dwayne."

"Yes, sir!" Dwayne answered, he seemed to have such a positive attitude. I didn't know whether to be jealous or slightly annoyed.

"Round me up some stray cattle there," Bombay handed Dwayne a lasso, "Go get them."

"My pleasure!" Dwayne exclaimed, we all skated away.

Basically, if Dwayne caught us, we had to sit on the bench and whoever was left, won. First to go was Averman, Charlie, Gaffney, and so on until Luis ended up winning. He was so fast so it didn't come as much of a surprise. 

For the rest of practice, we ran our normal drills and played another scrimmage against each other. Our communication was so much better than before and in addition, the rust that had formed after years of Bombay being gone was starting to wear off. I didn't really realize it until the end of practice that being friends outside of hockey helped build our confidence, to the point where we almost knew each others every single move. Luis, Gaffney, Dwayne, Dean, and Ken all began to fit into the mold that was our team.

After showering and changing, Coach wanted us to meet him in the cafeteria where I sat between Adam and Charlie. Tibbles was standing in front of a large cardboard box with a smile, "Now, just to make sure that everybody knows who you are...try on one of these," Tibbles pulled out a red, white, and blue long sleeve hockey jersey that read 'Fulton' on the back, "Brought to you by those wonderful people at Hendrix...for all your hockey needs. Here you go Fulton."

"That's nice Coach, but we're Ducks. This stuff says 'Hendrix' all over it," Charlie noted, sounding disappointed.

"Well, yeah, they're our sponsors, Charlie."

"So what? Can't we be U.S.A. Ducks? Or at least keep our own colors?" Charlie pressed, he had so much pride and hated being labeled something so impersonal.

"It's business stuff, Charlie, don't worry about it," Coach patted him on the shoulder and stood up to take a look at our new jerseys with the rest of the team.

"I hate that," Charlie complained, "This isn't who we are."

"We're still us Charlie, just because we don't have ducks on our jerseys doesn't change anything," I nudged him with my shoulder.

"Yeah, don't take it so personally, Charlie. This opportunity is so good for us and at least we're in it together," Adam affirmed with a smile, he was the most level headed of the guys.

"Hey, you gonna come grab your jersey or stay over there pouting, Captain?" Jesse smirked.

"Would you just toss it to me already?" Charlie snapped, smirking back at him.